Re: an introduction

[Stupendous Man <richmond@a188-l009.rit.edu>]

> I would like to make this data generally available; 
> probably using an email interface.  Eg a web page could contain 
> information on dates that images of a given RA are available and a 
> request for the file could be made by automated e-mail.

  If you have the bandwidth, I would suggest an interface like that
of the Stardial project:

           http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/stardial/

Their web pages contain links to all the images they have taken,
organized both by date/time and by RA.  

> This set-up is best suited to scanning near the celestial equator.  
> Could someone tell me if this region is being scanned to death?

  The celestial equator _has_ been scanned a number of times.  Ignoring
surveys which go much fainter than you are considering (such as 
2dF and SDSS), I can find references to

       Equatorial IR catalog:        before 1990
       FASTT:                        1996? - 1999?
       Stardial:                     Jul 1996 - now
       TASS Mark III:                Oct 1996 - Nov 1998

  I would still recommend scanning the equator, at least at the start.
Why?  So many people have studied this area that you will have plenty
of good catalogs against which you can compare your own measurements.
It's VERY important to make sure that your instrument can reproduce
existing results, especially at first.

  After you've verified that everything is working well, you can
start moving off the equator to Dec = +5, +7, +9, etc. as you wish.

  Note: even while you are scanning areas which have already been
studied, you can STILL do "real science".  There are a number of long-period
variable stars which don't have accurate period measurements.
If you can add your data in, say, 2002 - 2003 with existing
data from 1996-1999 and 2001-2002, you might be able to determine
the period and amplitude of variation accurately.  And there is
always the chance that something new and exciting -- a nova,
or gamma-ray burst -- will appear in the area you are scanning.

  Please tell us how your work progresses!

                                                 Michael Richmond